Well-Known Member

ive looked into them but didnt invest in it because of the cost vs flight time. its something along the lines of 10-15 minutes of flight for about $500-$600 and it doesnt increase with cost. the standard helicopter type R/Cs will get a bit more time but can be a bit more difficult to fly and can be a bit cheaper.

Completely Out of Ammo

Well like I said for now if I crash a $50 one into the street who cares. Better to practice with a $50 one than have a $479 unit w/ a couple hundred dollars in extras bite the dust.

BTW, the little x4 I have has its own on-board non-HD camera.

All of these guys use expensive $325+ GoPro Black Cameras on the nicer quads. Why? You can't use the WIFI feature w/o messing up the 2.4 link to your transmitter.

A Mobius Camera is $69 and has near the quality. 1080p 30fps vs 60. Plus it is smaller, lighter. I can't even find adapters for the quads to just a regular camera mount. The Mobius has a mount that would work but no shock absorber. I would think the Mobius would be a much better choice for airborne photography.

Active Member

Mostly I use 2 cameras onboard right now, the GoPro "Black" or the Gh2.

I get a live video feed to the ground FPV (first person view) to a monitor to line up the shot/video.

In addition, I have a 2nd GPS onboard sending info to the monitor display, distance from pilot, elevation, speed and the way back home.

I can trigger the GH2 from the ground using a video down link to line up the shot, as you pointed out Burt, I had worries that it would interfere with the 2.4 on the radio, but so far never an issue.

A few years ago I got this idea to learn Video Editing using Adobe CS4 or 5, Nothing Special about the flight, the shots or the flying, just my first attempt at video editing ( that in itself can be addicting Burt) lol

Using the ol' faithful Raptor 550e with Helicommand and turning it around when it was a spec in the sky for my old vision and getting it back home in one piece nose in...

Member

These are heavy lifter UAVs that can lift substantially more payload than a Phantom. I got to mess with the four arm 8 motor version because the company my son was working for this summer bought one to "drop test" avionics hardware. Considering what they are, they aren't priced too badly.

You can get some in kits and some ready to go that would allow you to really max out the camera hardware: build your own live telemetry surveillance drone. At a price far below what the government pays, I'm sure.

Completely Out of Ammo

I did a dumb stunt the other day with a 350qx quad. Didn't know that I shouldn't go above 400'.

Just punched up straight up and it took off like a rocket into the clear sky abyss above. Disappeared completely. Neighbor and I couldn't see it at all. My best guess is it was up there, somewhere, about 1000-1200' or so? A couple times taller than the Bank Tower on 5th Downtown hahahaha.

I looked at him and said 'well, damn, that was the fastest flush of $400 down the toilet ever.' I throttled down and nothing after a minute. Then I hit the 'return to home' switch and waited another 2-3 minutes - not a sign at all.

Actually, it was disappointing but kind of funny. I was concerned about the 2-3lb flyer crashing down somewhere - my luck it would crash atop someone's Mercedes, or worse yet, hit a kid somewhere.

Then after about another 9-10 minutes I could hear a distant buzzing sound. The damn thing was coming back from its moon shot! Landed within 5' of its takeoff place all by itself.

Well-Known Member

I did a dumb stunt the other day with a 350qx quad. Didn't know that I shouldn't go above 400'.

Just punched up straight up and it took off like a rocket into the clear sky abyss above. Disappeared completely. Neighbor and I couldn't see it at all. My best guess is it was up there, somewhere, about 1000-1200' or so? A couple times taller than the Bank Tower on 5th Downtown hahahaha.

I looked at him and said 'well, damn, that was the fastest flush of $400 down the toilet ever.' I throttled down and nothing after a minute. Then I hit the 'return to home' switch and waited another 2-3 minutes - not a sign at all.

Actually, it was disappointing but kind of funny. I was concerned about the 2-3lb flyer crashing down somewhere - my luck it would crash atop someone's Mercedes, or worse yet, hit a kid somewhere.

Then after about another 9-10 minutes I could hear a distant buzzing sound. The damn thing was coming back from its moon shot! Landed within 5' of its takeoff place all by itself.

I won't be doing that again though.

Click to expand...

I was looking at those. Are they worth the $? seem like some good features on them (safe mode so you don't have to run because of your bad flying skills)

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